We already seem to be spending a great deal of time on busses but Australia is a huge continent. Now I get the phrase "No pain, no gain". We left early to travel to Airlie Beach. We stopped in the city of Tully which boasts of being the wettest place in Australia. There is a big gumboot (rubber boot) in the middle of town with water levels marked on it. Check out the sign that I took a picture of for facts about the gumboot. Interestingly, "Bata" is painted on the top of the boot at the back. Bata is a Canadian company.

Then we visited the Ingan Cultural Museum and had the opportunity to participate in a painting activity with traditional Jirrbal Aboriginal artists. We listened to stories from tribe lore and painted a boomerang. The indigenous people here were treated very badly - about as bad as our native Indians. Until recently they were not even considered human beings. They were regulated by the flora and fauna act of Australia!!! Things are better but there's still room for improvement. She took us outside and asked us to look between 2 points. Then she asked us what we saw. We said we saw trees, mountains, birds, nature etc. - a very holistic view. Indigenous people see things like a type of palm tree that can provide food, trees for firewood, water for drinking etc. Interesting how we see the same things but each with a different perspective. We had a nice lunch and then got back on the bus for a 7 hour trip to our final destination.

We saw banana fields and the ever present sugar cane farms along the way. The bananas were actually covered in bags to protect them from pesticides and the sun which makes them go mushy. Trivia fact about bananas: if they're not ripe they don't have the full complement of nutrients. Aussies depend on bananas for a lot of their vitamins. A few years ago, there was a cyclone which wiped out pretty much the entire banana crop. After that banana prices skyrocketed and it cost about $25/ kilo for them. The crops have finally been replenished so all is well now with Aussie banana prices. On the roads you also see trucks (similar to a pickup but with a flat bed on the back) with dogs tied up on the flatbed. It is illegal to have dogs on the back without being tied. They don't have a chance in the event of an accident!

We passed Hinchinbrook Island on our way south. It is Australia's largest island national park. It is used for bushwalking and camping. There are no facilities at all so you have to take everything with you. Only 100 people allowed at a time.

Being in the bus for so long you tend to notice things you might not otherwise. For instance, the road signs can be funky here. The sign for slippery when wet is a car with squiggly lines under it but the lines here are such that it looks like the wheels change positions from one side of the car to the other; a railroad crossing sign can be like ours with an X or a picture of a choo choo train with smoke coming out of it (like Thomas). The bus stop signs always seem to be a mother and child walking with bus stop written under them - like men don't take the bus!!??!! Same with a cross walk - mother and child walking (same sign) but without the bus stop words under it or just a pair of legs walking. There is a sign that says "wrong way go back". They don't warn you before you get on not to enter the lane but tell you once you're there that you made a mistake. I guess that's for foreigners who try to drive on the right side (literally). They also have various animal crossing signs - cattle, sheep, cassowaries, kangaroos, turtles. It's just a picture of the animal. It doesn't say crossing on it. If you didn't know you'd just think they like to put pictures of animals alongside the road. Some speed bumps are really speed bumps - they are like our speed humps but have rocks sticking out of them as well. You cannot go fast over them.

The landscape changes as we went further south. From lush green with mountains to flat farmland with no mountains and browner - more like driving up the 400. Then some mountains appear in the distance again. It's definitely not as pretty on this route.

We passed through Bowen, a small town famous for a scene shot in the movie "Australia" with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. It's apparently such a big deal that a movie was shot here
that they renamed the town Bowenwood. it's also known for mangoes. It has a statue of a huge mango to commemorate this fact!

After a full day on the bus we finally made it to Airlie Beach after dark at 7:30 pm. Yeah! I was starting to feel like I felt on the plane trip here. My butt was getting numb and I was going tropo (crazy). Not the best day that's for sure.

We had a reservation at a nice seafood restaurant tonight and most of us went. The food was phenomenal.

We're going sailing early tomorrow so we headed back to the hotel after dinner to get some shut eye.